states economy that if we wouldn't have helped out temporarily, that we could have had the united states slip from a recession into a depression. so looking back, we thought about it a lot. would we do the same thing again and testify on behalf of our competitors? i think it was critical to our country at the time. >> and you didn't need a bailout because you borrowed a lot of money earlier. >> we did. we went to the banks in 2006 with this plan to create a full family of vehicles to transform ford. the banks loved the plan. they loaned us $23.5 billion. and charlie, i'm just so pleased now that based on the strength of this product line, we have now repaid all of the $23.5 billion now. >> so you're riding a high here. and there are talks that you're ready to retire. >> really? charlie, what is that about? >> what's that rumor? >> well, you know, clearly -- >> a succession is in place that you may announce the new chief operating officer is mark fields. you want to make news here now? >> no, there's no news to be made. but clearly ford is a very important company for our country. the aut